Old jewish comedians

Allowing Drew Friedman to indulge his fondness for wrinkles and liver spots to the hilt, this portrait gallery of Jewish comedians born before 1930 includes the famous (Milton Berle, George Burns, Groucho Marx, Jerry Lewis, Alan King, Mel Brooks, Buddy Hackett, Phil Silvers, Jack Benny, Henny Youngman), the not-so-famous (Irwin Corey, Benny Rubin, Shelly Berman, Shecky Greene) and the largely unknown (Al Kelly, Menasha Skulnik). Old Jewish Comedians traces a direct link not only to the traditions of vaudeville and burlesque but to the once-thriving international Yiddish theatre and culture. Featuring a fascinating historical introduction by none other than Leonard Maltin!

"Drew Friedman is the unchallenged living master of the art of caricature, pushing it far beyond the centuries-old tricks of clever physiognomic exaggeration and social skewering into a new, almost biological realm; his portraits and drawings have a lucidity that's unsettlingly scientific, as if Honore Daumier, Ivan Albright, and a forensic doctor were all guiding his hand. He makes me feel the fat hanging off my face and those tiny bumps on my arms that never seem to go away no matter how hard I scrub at them." – Chris Ware